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Author 



Title 



Imprint 



16— 4737»-3 OPO 



VITAL ELEMENTS 



IN 



HISTORIC EDUCATION 

AN EXAMINATION OF THE MORE VALU- 
ABLE FACTORS IN ANCIENT and MEDIEVAL 
EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE 



Bg 

E. LEIGH MUDGE, PH. D. 

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
EDINBORO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 




EDINBORO PUBLISHING CO. 
EDINBORO, PA. 



Copyright, 1920 
By E. LEIGH MUDGE 



JAN 6\ (M?l 

©C1A6C78;:0 



Preface 

An important part of a teacher-training curriculum is a pro- 
perly presented course in the history of education. If this sub- 
ject, like many in our American schools, is taught merely as a 
subject, as a field of intellectual or sentimental interest, its pre- 
sentation in our institutions will soon be of the past. But if it 
be related to present-day problems, so that it may shed the light 
of world-experience upon the perennial questions of mental and 
moral development, it will be of the highest value. 

The contributions of ancient and medieval educators to 
the world's progress, and our consequent debt to them, have 
been often and admirably treated. It is not my purpose to at- 
tempt such a characterization of those who have shaped edu- 
cational history, but rather to point out some features of earlier 
educational theory and practice which have been found worthy 
enough to live, in Some form and degree, to the present day. 
Many elements in past systems were significant as stepping-stones 
but w^ere soon passed by. We remember them gratefully but 
would not resurrect them into modern practice. But some ele- 
ments are still vitally fresh and significant. This is a recognition 
of the past originality of which the present and the future are 
the favored heirs. It aims to ignore the negations in a search 
for the positive and permanent suggestions which still affect 
our educatonal practice and thus to be essentially and positively 
appreciative. It is the hope of the writer that these siftings 
from past theory and practice may suggest to students a method 
of vitalizing the study of various periods of educational history. 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 3 



PART I 

GREEK EDUCATION 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 



EARLY GREEK EDUCATION 

Social Aim. A significant factor in the earlier education 
of Greece was its directly social aim. The training of a Greek 
boy was with constant reference to his becoming a man, 
a citizen. Doubtless the play of childhood was too much lim- 
ited, and certainly the life of the Spartan boy was a vigorous 
forcing of an extreme and unnatural hardihood, but the sons 
of the Greek freemen enjoyed a social life together which aided 
greatly in fitting them for the responsibilities of adult society. 
The Spartan barracks were no more unnatural than the more 
modern method of isolating a boy with a private tutor, and the 
social value of Greek boy life may be found in the more demo- 
cratic boy life of our public schools. 

Association With Men. Another social element in Greek 
education was the association of boys with adult men. There 
was a basis in Spartan custom for a sort of "big brother" tutor- 
ship, so that "every Spartan adult was a teacher, and every 
Spartan boy had a tutor, selected through mutual esteem, bound 
together by no economic ties, but by those of friendship, and 
affection. Sparta having practically destroyed family life, 
this was really an inferior substitute for the relation which should 
exist betw^een father and son. But it is a significant recognition 
of the fact that a training for manhood should include association 
with worthy men. The Greeks largely disregarded the educa- 
tional value of family relationships, but they learned the value 
of manly virtue exemplified and personified in a man who might 
be a boy's friendly counsellor as well as his ideal example. 

Harmonious Development. In modern times we have re- 
curred to the Greek insistence upon a sound mind in a sound 
body. The ideal of Hellenic education was a harmonious devel- 
opment of all sides of human life. The methods were doubtless 
relatively crude and inefficient, but the ideal is abidingly signifi- 
cant. The two great educational specifics, in the Greek view, were 
gymnastics and music. Music, to be sure, was a comprehensive 
term, including such matters a*s the memorizing of the poems of 
Homer and Hesiod, and certain linguistic studies which involved 
a variety of intellectual activity, but it was a recognition of the 
value of aesthetic training, the exercise of the affective powers 
of appreciation which mean so much in any worthy modern 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 5 

system of education. Modern education has passed through 
deadly periods of intellectuaHsm, when the physical and the 
aesthetic were alike dominated if not deposed by the intellectual. 
"Gymnastic for the body, music for the soul," is the ancient 
formula which has a deserved influence upon modern education. 

Development of Originality. It should be noted that the 
training of the Greek youth in "music" was not a matter of mere 
imitation and memory, but encouraged the exercise of originality. 
An important part of his work was playing the lyre in accom- 
paniment of the reading of the poets. This was not the practice 
of an accompanment in w^hich the boy had been instructed, but 
the actual w^orking out of an accompaniment appropriate to the 
words. Training of this sort in actual self-expression must have 
been the best of preparation for the artistic and philosophic and 
political originality which have caused the Greeks to be so long 
remembered. It is in harmony with the educational principle, 
"We learn to do by doing." Limited as this supervised self- 
expression seems to have been, it was based upon a vitally im- 
portant educational principle. 

SOCRATES 

The chief contributions of Socrates and the systematic phil- 
osophers to educational progress are closely involved in the 
history of philosophy and can be but indirectly reflected here. 
We shall consider only the distinct educational principles which 
have survived the fate of the temporary and maintain a modern 
significance. 

Conversational Method. The dialectic of Socrates repre- 
sents something more than a method of imparting information. 
It was opposed to the eX cathedra dogmatism of the Sophists 
upon the Sophists' own ground of the relativity of knowledge. 
To be sure there are established facts which must be socially 
imparted through instruction, but the knowledge in which Soc- 
rates was interested, involving standards and modes of human 
conduct, was to be developed largely through the mental initia- 
tive of the student. The significance of the dialectic method 
is in its utilization of self-expression and personal attitudes. 
The method of the Sophists had been the lecture method, val- 
uable in its place, but productive of dogmatism on the part of 
the instructor or of a passive receptivity on the part of the stu- 



6 VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 

dent. Socrates saw the inefficiency, for mental training, of the 
jug-pouring method which w^as not new w^ith the Sophists and 
did not altogether disappear with Mr. Gradgrind. 

The Socratic Definition. Socrates made use of the dialec- 
tic method for two distinct ends. He first desired to destroy 
the false assurances, prejudices, superstitions, and such like sub- 
stitutions for know^ledge, which obstructed the way to truth. 
Hence his questions w^ere such as to cause his students to thor- 
oughly examine their opinions, criticise their own points of view, 
and if necessary change them. The ca.sual readers of the 
dialogues of Socrates, as represented in Plato's earlier works, 
may feel that his aim is chiefly negative. But the negative 
phase !|S essentially preparatory to the positive construction, by 
the inductive method, of reasonable definitions w^hich may bear 
positive truth. Says Aristotle: "There are two things that one 
can rightly attribute to Socrates: inductve reasoning and uni- 
versal definition. " Just what a Socratic definition is may in- 
volve an incursion into epistemology, but it is clear that there 
is a recognition of the social and experiential basis for what is 
to be accepted as true, since an acceptable definition is to be 
one which involves only "those qualities in which all men are 
agreed, and without which the thing would cease to be what 
it is. " 

PLATO 

Plato's great educational Utopia, described in the Republic, 
was limited by his aristocratic prejudices, and from the position 
of American democracy we can criticize the great Platonic 
scheme in many particulars. An American educator has said 
that the modern educational system coming nearest to the ideal 
of the Republic of Plato is that of Germany. Aside from the 
undemocratic attitude which was common in Plato's day and 
much less to be condemned than in a modern civilized state, 
this ancient dream of social and educational order is astonish- 
ingly modern. 

The Platonic Dialectic. Like Socrates, Plato utilizes the 
dialectic method, but he seems to have looked more deeply into 
its significance in education. He seems to recognize the essen- 
tially social character of thought. It is not a merely subjective 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 



process, but a matter of attitudes and reactions involving per- 
sonal responses. He defines dialectic as a "continuous discourse 
with one's self," and this is really the nature of normal thought. 
Thus it is that speech helps thought as much as thought helps 
speech. The question method in education is a method of ift" 
citing to thought, and in asking questions the Platonic Socrates 
is really stimulating and clarifying the thought of his disciples. 

individual Difference. Plato made the significant dis- 
covery that "people are born not quite like each other," and 
succeeding history and modern experimental methods have con- 
firmed this statement. The full implications of this apparently 
simple conclusion have scarcely begun, even yet, to dawn upon 
the educational world. Vocational education, continuation 
schools, special promotion systems to provide for the unusually 
bright or retarded^ — these and many other modern problems 
grow out of an increasing consciousness of this Platonic truth. 
The educational corollary to this psychological fact is that each 
person in Plato's ideal state is to do what he is by nature best 
fitted for. It is the business of education to find out w^hat this 
is. The thorough application of this principle would have 
amazed Plato, beyond a doubt. From cur experience in demo- 
cratic America, w^e are quite sure that ability to serve the state 
as soldiers, to rule it as public guardians, or even to engage in 
the study of philosophy, would have been found among the im- 
mense slave class of Athens, had they been given full social 
opportunity for a generation. When the full responsibility of 
the state for the discovery of individual abilities is recognized, 
We shall have use for the mental tests we are so painfully working 
out. Vocational guidance and the discovery of hidden native 
aptitudes w^ill be the recognized function of the school system. 

Vocational Education. But even the great educational 
function just described is preparatory to another. It is the duty 
of the state to make possible the fullest development of the 
powers thus brought to light. Having found a boy fitted by 
nature for the work of a soldier, it is in the interest of the state 
that he be thoroughly trained for his calling. This involves a 
classification of schools, or at least a differentiation of their func- 
tions, according to the native abilities of the pupils. In the 
actual plan of the Republic, Plato was limited by the traditional 
education and by fancifully ideal methods, and of course lacked 



8 VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 

altogether the scientific tests toward which w^e are looking to-day, 
but this conception of people with different functions but each 
trained for his particular w^ork is in harmony w^ith modem edu- 
cational ideals. Add to it the broad democratic ideal of our 
American school system, and the conception of the ancient specu- 
lative philosopher much resembles that of a modem practical 
schoolman. It should be emphasized that the training which 
Plato would prescribe for the various social classes of his ideal 
state was not merely narrowly vocational. All were to have 
the fundamental training in gymnastic and music, which included 
instruction in the history and literature of their country, and 
there was provision for reading, w^riting, and mathematics. 

Practical and Social Education. A principle of great sig- 
nificance is Plato's union of the theoretical and the practical in 
education. The school w^as not to be isolated from life. Its 
teachings were not to be merely academic, but w^ere to be con- 
stantly related to the problems of life. It was a training for life, 
but not merely in the sense of preparation. It was life, includmg 
active participation in those things which the Greeks deemed 
essential to the worth-while life. Indeed the whole scheme of 
the Republic may be considered educational, as it involves a 
life-long preparation, but it found its justification and expression 
in practical duties for the state. Even philosophy, in the hands 
of its chosen devotees, was to be a preparation for the practical 
work of statecraft. We moderns may criticise the means em- 
ployed, we may object to certain of Plato's social ideas, but his 
purpose was evidently a thoroughly socialized education, an 
educational program in the interest of the state. 

Education of Women. It seems almost paradoxical that 
Plato, who held the common Greek view that woman is man's 
inferior, should have been the first defender of female education. 
Woman's inferiority, however, in Plato's judgement, does not 
consist in any fundamental difference from man, but in her being, 
as he puts it, "only a weaker man." Hence the principles con- 
trolling the education of men were to be applied to the education 
of women. To be sure, girls had been given the gymnastic 
training of early Sparta, but the motive seems to have been their 
physical preparation for child-bearing. Plato, in his recognition 
of woman's educability, in any throughgoing sense, was far in 
advance of his time. 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 9 

ARISTOTLE 

Education as Life. Out of Aristotle's immense contribu- 
tion to educational history the world has preserved more than 
appears on the surface of his teachings. Perhaps the chief edu- 
cational bequest of this greatest of thinkers is the conception of 
education which comes out of his functional conception of reality. 
Education is not preparatory to life; it is life. It is not to be 
thought of as an attainment or even as the means to an attain- 
ment. It is life in action, comprising its own value within itself. 
This being true, the school is not merely preparatory to life, 
but essential to life. Our schools, with this conception of their 
function, will not be separate from the social life outside their 
gates; they will be of a piece with that life. Their pupils will 
learn to live by living, will learn to adjust themselves to life 
outside the walls because they lead the same life within the walls, 
w^ill deal w^ith problems which are not peculiar to school rooms 
but which are involved in life adjustments. The socialized 
school w^ould be the outcome of this Aristotelian application. 

Induction. That for centuries the deductive logic of Aris- 
totle should have been given divine honors, w^hile his recognition 
of the fundamental essentiality of induction remained unknow^n, 
is one of the paradoxical humors of history. Socrates had 
recognized the function of induction; Aristotle carried this 
method far on the way toward its efficient use in modern 
science. The medieval fallacy of a dogmatic method still influ- 
ences education. Progressive teachers are beginning to ap- 
preciate the union of induction and deduction which marked the 
teachings of the great Peripatetic. 

Habit. Readers of Aristotle are wonder-struck by the 
freshness and modernity of much of his teaching. With 
astonishing insight he foreshadows the psychology of our own 
scientific age. Recognizing the binding character of heredity, 
he realized that education must be a matter of habit formation. 
A worthy life was the result, or rather the process, of worthy 
habits of action; and hence, to mention one phase of education, 
the function of gymnastics, always valued by the Greeks for its 
moral effects, was to be the development of habits of self-con- 
trol. He did not value athletics merely for the production of 
physical vigor, but for the moral effect as well. 



10 VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 



Aesthetics. "There seems to be in us," says Aristotle, "a 
sort of affinity to harmonies and rhythms;" and hence he values 
music as an element in moral training. This close relation 
between aesthetics and ethics is being recognized by modern 
psychology. Although Plato had the instincts of the poet and 
the dramatist thoroughly developed in himself, it was Aristotle 
who most valued their educational influence. "The perpetual 
demand for what is merely useful is anything but a mark of 
breadth or liberality." In these days we are beginning to see 
the limitations of a mere intellectual training and to realize the 
importance of training the aesthetic and appreciative as well as 
the social activities of our young people. 

Education and Virtue. Knowing as we do the evils con- 
nected with illiteracy, we are in sympathy with Aristotle's 
doctrine that education is necessary to virtue. This means that 
the state should be, essentially and functionally, an educational 
institution. It is perhaps too much to expect that in those days 
of established slavery even Aristotle should see the responsibility 
of the state for universal education. "It is not possible," he 
says, "to care for the things of virtue while living the life of the 
artizan or the slave;" but this apology for limited education is 
really, as w^e see it to-day, an argument for such a social order 
as shall make universal virtue possible. 

Recreation. Of special significance to-day is Aristotle's 
emphasig upon education for leisure. Recognizing the necessity 
for vocational training, he also saw the importance of the right 
use of leisure. In his day the ruling classes of Athens had 
achieved special opportunity for leisure, as many of our Ameri- 
cans of to-day have done, and the worthy use of this leisure 
time Aristotle considered an important educational problem. 
Recreation w^as to be taken systematically and with forethought, 
as a medicine for the soul. This conception is in striking har- 
mony with the recent educational emphasis upon training for 
the right use of leisure time. 

GENERAL INFLUENCE OF THE GREEKS UPON MODERN 

EDUCATION 

Modern Subjects of Study. The Greek love of learning 
and systematized thought has left a profound influence in the 
world. We have outgrown the science of Aristotle but not his 
scientific spirit and method. We have retained even the form 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 11 

of Euclid's geometry, in great degree, and formal logic was 
largely the permanent contribution of Aristotle. The number 
of modern sciences which may be traced from the active study 
of the Greeks is indicated by the names of subjects now^ taught 
in our schools. An investigation of the subjects taught in a sec- 
ondary academy, which w^as until recently connected with one of 
our colleges, indicates that, after ruling out the language courses, 
the names of nine out of thirteen distinct subjects given in the 
catalogue are of Greek derivation. Of the other four, two are 
from the Latin one from the Arabic, and one from the Anglo- 
Saxon. The list of departments in a college with which the 
author was formerly connected, excluding languages as before, 
shows sixteen names of Greek derivation, as against seven w^hich 
are either Latin or Anglo-Saxon. Of course the list of subjects 
included under these departments would include many other 
Greek-derived terms. 

The Spirit of Greek Thought. But the spirit and tendency 
of Greek learning are more important than the facts which that 
ancient people discovered or the forms w^hich they developed. 
The spirit of Greek thought was far different from the human- 
istic mind of modern times which reverences the ancient 
literature as his chief mental food. The Greeks were active, 
progressive thinkers. The writer of the Acts said of the Greeks 
of Paul s day: "All the Athenians and the strangers sojouring 
there spend their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear 
something new." This was long after the productive era of 
Greek thought, but it may indicate a characteristic of the restless 
Greek mind. In Paul's day the Greeks may have become mere 
dilattante thinkers; in the days of their earlier glory the free 
Greeks were mentally alert and progressive. They were cre- 
ative; they invented new scientific methods, worked out original 
philosophic systems and new art forms, and studied how all the 
existing subjects of human thought might be improved and 
developed. The spirit of the Greeks at its best was not a back- 
ward-looking impulse. It was chiefly interested in the present 
and the future. The Greek Renaissance which we need to-day 
is not a mere renewal of appreciation of the work of literary and 
scientific and artistic Athens, but a spirit of original, independent 
thought, facing the problems of to-day and looking forward to 
the greater problems of to-morrow. 



12 VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 



PART 11 

HEBREW EDUCATION 



VITAL ELEME NTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 13 

HEBREW EDUCATION 

Ethical Values. Hebrew education was superior to that 
of other oriental countries because of the nobler ethical feelings 
and conceptions which underlay it. Philo stated the subject 
of instruction to be "the native philosophy" and "every kind of 
virtue;" and both the philosophy and the accepted virtues of 
the Hebrews were broader and more comprehensive than those 
of any other Eastern people. There are certain oriental pro- 
verbs which illustrate the value which the Hebrews placed upon 
education. The significance of heredity as well as the environ- 
ment necessary for education is indicated in the saying: "You 
can only take out of a pot what you put into it." Other edu- 
cational proverbs are the following: "If the father be onion and 
the mother garlic how can there be any sweet perfume?" "The 
teaching of children is like engraving in stone, the teaching of 
adults like waves on the sea." Hebrew education was essen- 
tially religious, and involved the sanction,s of the fullest and 
noblest system of ethics of ancient times. In spite of the 
Pharisaism which exceeded the errors of more modern 
Puritanism, there is an insistance in the Hebrew consciousness 
upon broad and basic principles of conduct. The literature 
which constituted the curriculum of Hebrew schools w^as not 
merely ecclesia^stical and philosophic. The "wisdom" books, 
which comprise many of the pungent expressions of a proverb- 
loving people, abound in praise of practical, ethical, active 
wisdom. 

History and Biography. There is much to be said in favor 
of the Hebrew emphasis upon biography as a socializing subject 
of study. The practical center of the curriculum was the 
repetition of the hero tales of the nation. They were mythical, 
in a degree, but what nation has not its historical myths? There 
was a tremendous social energy latent in the old hero tales, and 
it became released and transformed into practical action in the 
boyhood of Israel. Teachers of to-day have found that there 
is a perennial appeal, for boys, in the hero tales of the Old Test- 
ament. Doubtless the earlier training of children in Israel was 
the oral repetition of these tales, the stories of the traditional 
deliverance df their ancesters, and the moral maxims accom- 
panying these stories. The maxims probably gained attention 
through their association with stories. 



14 VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 

National Feasts. One institution of the Hebrews should 
be mentioned for its peculiar educational value. The great 
national feasts united the sanctions of religion and family life in 
impressing the facts of national history upon the children. They 
were religious, patriotic, national festivals, often attended by 
families in a body, with recreational elements, joy and feasting, 
and also w^ith vivid historico-religious ceremonies. One of 
these feasts w^as something like a great patriotic pageant, and 
it must have deeply impressed the child who witnessed it. 

Early Training. The Hebrews recognized the significance 
of early training. A proverb quoted above indicates that the 
impressibility of childhood has been recognized in the orient. 
Josephus says of moral precepts: "Since we learn them from 
our first consciousness, we have them, as it were, engraven on 
our souls." In the Roman period (75 B. C. to 70 A. D. ) pro- 
vision seems to have been made for compulsory school attend- 
ance of boys from six to seven years of age. 

Union of Theory and Practice. It is significant that in 
Hebrew education practice and theory w^ere closely united. 
There were certain points of the law which were considered 
binding upon even the children, and it looks as though there 
were a gradual addition of obligations until at puberty the boy 
was considered fully responsible under the law. Of course the 
spirit of the Hebrew law became harsh and formal, but it is 
good pedagogy to teach the law through actual experience with 
it. 

Family Education. Among the most significant elements 
in Hebrew education was its recognition of the significance of 
family life. Among no ancient people was the mother more 
honored, and the early training of the boys as well as the girls 
was chiefly in her hands. However, the place of the father is 
notable. He it is to whom is entrusted the instruction of the 
children in the national traditions. Modern education owes 
much to its inheritance from two civilizations, the Hebrew and 
the Roman, in which the pater famiUaS has a central function in 
early education. 

Schools and Teachers. The Talmudic boast that in the 
time of Hezekiah "not one unlettered person could be found 
by a search from Dan to Beersheba," may be doubted, but it 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 15 

is certain that in the later national life of the Jews the school 
became a significant institution. The educational purpose of 
the synagogue is indicated by the use of the modern Yiddish 
term "Schule," and there was developed a school for children, 
meeting either in the synagogue or in a separate building. The 
teacher of such a school was called "the servant of the congre- 
gation," and it was provided that "an idle man shall not keep a 
school for children." In Jerusalem each synagogue is said to 
have had, in later Jewish history, two schools connected with 
it, — a primary school and a higher school for those who "might 
wish to become learned in the law." There is evidence of at 
least one still higher institution. The curriculum of these 
schools w^as, in general, narrowly Jewish, but at least one insti- 
tution in Jerusalem taught Greek philosophy, . and some know- 
ledge of Greek became a requirement for admission to the San- 
hedrin. \^ 



16 VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 



PART III 

ROMAN EDUCATION 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 17 

ROMAN EDUCATION 

Roman education cannot be treated as an independent 
system since much of it was dravs^n from Greek sources. But 
there are certain quite distinct elements which are characteris- 
tically Roman, and even opposed to the pedagogical tendencies 
of the Greeks. 

Practicality. In these days of vocational emphasis it is 
easy to appreciate the practical aim of the Roman school and 
home training. We may feel that the interpretation of prac- 
ticality was narrow and inadequate to the full, well-rounded 
life — here w^e take the attitude of the Greeks — but w^e are to-day 
insisting that education be measured by its fruits, by what the 
educated man or woman can do. From this viewpoint it is 
interesting to notice that in Rome the theory of learning to do 
by doing was thoroughy applied. Roman education was not 
concerned with disciplinary values, or with studiess that fur- 
nished a general or transferable training. One learned the 
art of war not through gymnastic games, but through the actual 
use of arms; one learned the art of agriculture through actual 
apprenticeship in that occupation. The strength of this system 
w^as that education w^as one with life and not an isolated set of 
experiences w^ithout obvious relation to life. 

Ethical Aim. Roman education was marked, as was that 
of the Hebrews, by its ethical purpose. It emphasized obli- 
gation and sought to develop the valued virtues of the Romans. 
It was not so much concerned w^ith intellectual development 
ajs with character development. Habitual virtue was its aim. 
It sought to train in habits of loyalty to family and nation, hon- 
esty, courage, and self-control. 

Hero Tales. Biography has played an important part in 
the education of many peoples. We have seen its significance 
in the case of the Hebrews. The Roman boy was told the 
hero tales of his nation, which, in general, involved a minimum 
of mythology and represented the actual achievements of men 
in the Roman virtues. "The grandeur that was Rome" has 
stimulated the imagination of the world even to the present 
day. Its hero tales must have been a potent element in the 
training of the Roman boys. 

Domestic Education. Athough there was a late introduc- 



18 VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 

tion of schools, much after the Greek pattern, the center and 
focus of distinctly Roman education began and remained in the 
home. There are glimpses in literature of the pleasant fellow- 
ship of boys with their fathers, and the home life of the Romans 
is distinctly higher and healthier than that of the Greeks. Even 
when Greek ideals had largely affected the educational practice, 
we find the Roman leaders of thought praising the influence of 
fathers and mothers upon their children. The social and legal 
unity of the home, the co-operation of the parents in the rearing 
of their children, the responsibility of the father for the physical 
and moral training of his boys, made this fundamental social 
group of chief educational importance. 

Quintilian. The development of the Roman educational 
system, affected as it became by Greek ideals, may well be 
illustrated by a few^ quotations from Quintilian, the great teacher 
of the first century. 

"We are by nature most tenacious of what we have inbibed in our 
infant year's, as the flavor with which you scent vessels when n^ew, 
remains in them ; nor can the colors of wool, for which its plain white- 
ness has been exchanged, be effaced; and those very habits, which are 
of a more objectionable nature, adhere with the greater tenacity; for 
good ones are easily changed for the worse, but when will you change 
bad ones into good?" 

"In parents I should wish that there should be as much learning 
as possible. Nor do I speak, indeed, merely to fathers." 

"Of pedagogi this further may be said, that they should either 
be men of acknowledged learning, which I wish to be the first object, 
or that they should be conscious of their want of learning; for none are 
more pernicious than those who, having gone some little beyond the 
tirst elements, clothe themselves in a mistaken persuasion of their own 
knowledge." 

"Some have thought that boys, as long as they are under seven 
years of age, should not be set to learn. Those, however, advise 
better, who, like Chrysippus think that no part of a child's life should 
be exempt from tuitiom; for Chrysippus, though he has allowed three 
years to the nurses, yet is of opinion that the minds of children^ may 
be imbued with excellent instruction even by them. And why should 
not that age be under the influence of learning, which is now con- 
fessedly subject to moral influences?" 

"Let his instruction be an amusement to him; let him be ques- 
tioned and praised." 

"The first rudiments of instruction are best treated by the most 
accomplished teacher." 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 19 

"Nor should a good master ejiciimber himself with a greater num- 
ber of scholars than he can manage; and it is to be a chief object with 
us, also, that the master may be in every way our kind friend, and may 
have regai'd to his teaching." 

"Friendships formed at school . . . remain in full force even 
to old age, as if cemented with a certain I'eligious obligation." 

"At home he can learm only what is taught himself; at school, 
even what is taught others. He will daily hear many things com- 
manded, many things corrected; the idleness of a fellow student, when 
reproved, will be a warning to him; the industry of any one, when 
commended, will be a stimulus; emulation will be excited by praise." 

"Let him that is skilled in teaching, ascertain first of all, when a 
boy is entrusted to him, his ability and disposition." 

"Boys .... when re-invigorated and refreshed, bring more 
sprightliness to their learning, and a more determined spirit, which for 
the most part spurns compulsion." 

"Let his (the teacher's) austerity not be stern, nor his affability 
too easy, lest dislike arise from the one, or contempt from the other." 

"It is generally, and not without reason, I'egarded as an excellent 
quality in a master to observe accurately the differences of ability in 
those whom he has undertaken to instruct, and to ascertain in what 
direction the nature of each paticularly inclines him; for there is in 
talent an incredible variety." 



20 VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 



PART rv 
EARLY AND MEDIEVAL CHRIS- 
TIAN EDUCATION 



VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 21 

EARLY AND MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Moral Education. The merits of education in the early 
church and through the long medieval centuries were chiefly the 
merits of Christian ethics and religion. The moral purity of 
early Christianity stands in vivid contrast to the current degen- 
eracy of morals in the Roman world of that day. The Chris- 
tians, whatever their neglect of intellectual training, were right in 
using the forces of education in the service of the moral life. It 
was a one-sided education, but it met the moral condition of the 
time with such a training of the life of feeling and emotion as 
adapted it to the chief need of that day. 

Preserving Intellectual Interests. The principal intellectual 
values in early Christian education were borrowed from the 
Greeks and Romans, and while there was a tendency to oppose 
all such influences, the intellectual preservation of Europe was 
due, in great part, to their use. Aside from the moral emphasis 
of the early church we can find little educational originality of 
any value to us for many centuries. But we may recognize the 
value of systems of thinking, narrowly limited though they were, 
w^hich preserved an interest in learning and at least a trace of in- 
tellectual training. In the chief form of medieval education, 
that of the monasteries, the intellectual life was valued only in 
relation to a system of ethics and religion; but the monasteries 
maintained some sort of educational tradition,s, and later came 
to be the centers of a more humanistic type of education, as w^ell 
as the treasuries of the literature of earlier centuries. 

Music. An important part in early Christian education 
appears to have been taken by music. There was a long-lived 
prejudice against musical instruments, due to their association 
with pagan rites, but from the time of Jesus great attention was 
given to hymn-singing. Pliny describes some sort of antiphonal 
singing, and the music of that day seems to have consisted of 
congregational singing. Chrysostom used antiphonies and dox- 
ologies to counteract heretical doctrines w^hich w^ere expressed 
in songs. Music was given a new dignity after the fourth cen- 
tury in the development of the style commonly attributed to 
Gregory the Great, and in the accumulation of a large variety of 
songs. The educational value of music in a period marked by 



22 VITAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORIC EDUCATION 

such meagerness in other emotional and intellectual phases of 
life must have been great. 

Scholasticism and Learning. With the rise of scholasticis*- 
came a stimulation of intellectual interest. To us, its form 
logic, its deductions from dogma, its utter dependence upc 
authority, seem opposed to the very spirit of scholarship. B' 
scholasticism represents the first awakening from the intellectu 
stupor that so largely affected the earlier centuries. While ou 
wardly an apologetic for the doctrines of the church, scholar 
ticism was really the development of a new love of learning 
And this interest in things intellectual is surely of value in a, 
ages. It is this that makes through science and philosoph; 
possible even to-day. 

Mysticism. The values in the educational phases of 
mysticism, while commonly underestimated, are always involved 
in religious education. With all their intellectual and emotional 
extravagances, the mystics w^ere concerned with the problem 
of the attitude of man toward the unseen. This is not so much 
a matter of intellectual training as of the training of the life of 
feeling and emotion. The mystics have been credited with the 
preservation of religion. They are also entitled to fully as much 
credit as the dry-as-dust scholastics for the preserving of edu- 
cation, since the motivation of the educational movements 
leading up to modern times was very largely religiou,s and 
mystical. 

Chivalry. The ideals of chivalry w^ere those of feudalism 
and aristocracy at their best. However, w^e in our democratic 
spirit can find some significant elements which are still of value. 
Chivalry brought into Christendom the nobler ideals of the 
Teutonic peoples, blended them with Christian virtues, and pro- 
duced, at its best, a system of conduct which has its inspiration 
for boys of to-day. The training of a knight involved a long 
period of preparation, during which the boy, first as page and 
then as .squire, must learn such virtues as unselfishness, personal 
honor, respect for superiors, consideration for his inferiors, cour- 
tesy toward women, gentleness and liberality toward the weak, 
together with the fiercer characteristics of the warrior. To be 
sure, there was an aristocratic exclu,siveness in chivalry, and 
doubtless snobbishness and condescension in the attitude of a 
knight toward the lower orders of society, but there is something 
in the finer idealism of chivalry that distinctly appeals to boys 
to-day. 



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